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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27163516">Four Seconds</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ACuriousParadox/pseuds/ACuriousParadox'>ACuriousParadox</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Blaseball (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Charleston Shoe Thieves</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:26:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>459</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27163516</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ACuriousParadox/pseuds/ACuriousParadox</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Richardson "Dickson" Games describes the most exciting moments of his life.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Charleston Shoe Thieves Fanfiction</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Four Seconds</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Four seconds.  That was about how long it took Richardson “Dickson” Games to run from one base to the other.  For those four seconds, he wasn’t a blaseball player anymore.  He was an Olympic sprinter.  </p><p>The steal is one of the more interesting plays in blaseball.  Blaseball prowess usually requires the combination of serveal skills: reaction time to appropriately judge the pitch, precision to hit the ball where you want to, power to get the ball as far as you need to, patience to wait for a good pitch to cross the plate.  But once you’re on base, stealing requires only your raw speed and the right opportunity to use it.  Dickson was not a good hitter, by any definition of the word.  But he was fast.  And once he got in, it was difficult to stop from advancing towards home, 90 feet at a time.  </p><p>Stealing was a standard weapon in Dickson’s arsenal.  But what he really loved was the sacrifice.  Standing on third (or sometimes fourth) base, when home plate is in sight, that’s when his adrenaline starts pumping.  When Twofer or Haley gets the sign to lay down a bunt, he can feel the blood flowing through his legs.  And when the pitcher lifts his leg, his feet explode off the bag, desperate to run the other team into the ground.</p><p>Four seconds.  Dickson got to experience those four seconds several times over the course of a game.  But every time feels like the first time, every time he feels more alive than he’s ever felt.  More alive than when he hit his first homerun, more alive than jumping out of an airplane, even more alive than when he first laid eyes on the man who would become his husband.  </p><p>Richardson Games lived for those four seconds.  It was an addiction, a hunger that couldn’t be sated.  For those four seconds, nothing else mattered.  He didn’t have to think about his life with Corn, and the mistakes they made by moving too quickly.  He didn’t have to think about the Blaseball Gods and what they had planned for whichever team wins the championship this year.  He didn’t have to think about incinerations, or players being trapped in giant peanut shells to later be stolen from the teams that loved them.</p><p>For four brief seconds, none of it mattered.  All that mattered was sliding into home ahead of the tag, the umpire yelling “Safe!” and being congratulated by his teammates upon entering the dugout.  But it wouldn’t be long before the hunger was back, the pursuit of the thrill of it all.  No, everyone knew that the next time Richardson Games was on the basepath, he was counting down until he could find those four seconds again.</p>
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